Eighteen years passed in the blink of an eye.
Most people grew gradually—childhood forming layers like rings in a tree. But Nexus?
He grew in bursts.
Moments where the world shifted slightly off-tune, like a chord that almost harmonized but not quite.
Each surge made the Resonance within him stir.
By the time he reached high school, he had learned—painfully—to keep his abilities hidden. His Soul Core had become a silent engine, humming beneath the façade of an ordinary boy named:
Hajime Nagumo.
To his parents, he was a slightly awkward, slightly introverted kid who liked tinkering with gadgets and magic type of kid who also liked to sketch weird inventions in his notebooks.
To his classmates, he was… well… basically invisible.
And to himself?
He was a reincarnated, resonance-powered anomaly waiting for the universe to finally explain what the hell it wanted from him.
---
Monday.
It started like any other weekday.
A sleepy morning.
A lukewarm convenience-store sandwich.
A train ride packed with salarymen radiating collective misery.
By the time Hajime reached school, the sun hung lazily over the courtyard, its light filtering through the cherry blossoms that refused to fall despite being out of season.
He trudged into Class 3-B.
The chatter was instant.
"Morning, Kaori!"
"Yo, Kouki!"
"Did you study for the math test?"
"Bro, shut up, I just woke up."
Hajime slid quietly to his seat, hoping—praying—that his classmates' eyes would pass over him like usual.
Nope.
Kaori Shirasaki, high school angel and walking sunshine beam, turned toward him with a smile so warm it physically hurt.
"Good morning, Hajime-kun!"
He shrank slightly. "Morning, Kaori-san."
Kouki Amanogawa immediately took notice. The class's golden boy. Sword-for-brain. The "I was born to be a hero" type even before any magic was involved.
His eyebrow twitched.
Great. Another day of "Why is Kaori talking to the background character?"
Shizuku Yaegashi, cool beauty and Kouki's voice of reason, glanced over with a subtle frown. Not unkind—just perceptive. Too perceptive sometimes. He knew that she saw him use his powers more than once and is thankful that she chose to keep it a secret.
Hajime averted his gaze and opened his notebook.
Gun schematics lined the margins. Rifles. Pistols. Concepts for mana-based firing systems he had no business knowing about. He didn't draw them intentionally—they just appeared in his mind, like memories from a world that wasn't this one.
The bell rang.
Aiko Hatayama-sensei entered, smiling nervously with her usual "please behave or I will cry" energy.
"All right, class, settle down!"
But as the room quieted—
Something shifted.
A pulse—faint but unmistakable—throbbed deep inside Hajime's chest.
His Resonance.
He winced, grabbing the edge of his desk as a wave of emotionless, ancient awareness washed over him.
Cold.
Vast.
Unfathomably distant.
Like someone—or something—had brushed against the edges of his reality.
What… was that?
His vision blurred.
Images flooded his mind. Not memories. Not dreams.
Fragments.
A giant cathedral bathed in ethereal light.
A rune-inscribed summoning circle burning blue.
A figure with faceless divinity towering like a god made of marble.
Then—
Nothing.
The connection severed as fast as it appeared.
Hajime gasped, fingers trembling slightly.
"What was that reaction…?" he whispered under his breath. "It's too early… I'm nowhere near ready for an Awakening."
But it was too late.
The gears of destiny had moved.
And they wouldn't stop.
---
Lunch Break – The Calm Before It Ends
By the time lunch rolled around, Hajime had convinced himself it was just a flare-up. Some glitch in his Soul Core. Something that would settle down if he ignored it long enough.
Spoiler: It did not.
Kaori and Shizuku entered the classroom, giggling like regular high school girls.
Kouki radiated sparkles in the corner while his fanboys reenacted scenes from generic battle anime.
Aiko-sensei ate her lunch alone, pretending not to notice her students' nonsense.
Ordinary.
Normal.
Too normal.
Hajime rested his chin on his desk, staring at the half-finished sketch of a mana pistol.
At least today won't be too weird, he thought—
—which was the exact moment reality decided to prove him wrong.
A faint hum tickled the edge of his senses.
Mana.
But not the small, scattered traces he usually felt around living beings or ambient energy.
No.
This was structured.
Layered.
Intentional.
He sat up straight.
A magic circle…? Here? In modern Japan? Impossible—
The hum deepened.
Hajime's instincts screamed.
His Resonance pulsed.
Something in the air bent—curved—warped.
"Kouki…" Shizuku murmured, her brows knitting. "Do you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Kouki asked, oblivious.
Kaori opened her mouth to respond—
But she didn't have time.
---
The Summoning Circle
Light erupted beneath their feet.
A massive magic circle—etched with runes no one in this world should recognize—unfurled across the classroom floor with terrifying precision.
"W-What the hell!?"
"A hologram?"
"Is this a prank!?"
No.
It wasn't.
Hajime sucked in a sharp breath. He recognized those runes. Not from Japan. Not from this world.
From the worlds he'd glimpsed in visions.
"No… no no no—this shouldn't be possible yet—!"
Desks rattled.
Books shook.
The floor vibrated.
Aiko-sensei screamed, "Everyone get back! Don't touch the light!"
Students pushed away from their desks, some tripping, some crying, some trembling.
The circle expanded, swallowing tables, chairs, walls—
Swallowing them.
Hajime staggered back, heart pounding.
His Resonance roared in panic.
This was the place.
The vision he saw as an infant.
The moment the universe had warned him about.
The moment that would drag him from home—
From safety—
From everything he'd built—
And thrust him into a world that had waited seventeen years for him.
The circle burned brighter—white overtaking blue, blue overtaking reality.
"Everyone grab onto something!" Kouki shouted, trying to sound heroic.
No one listened.
The circle reached maximum brightness.
Hajime clenched his fists.
"So this is it," he whispered. "The Crossroads finally opens…"
The air cracked—
Reality folded—
Light swallowed everything—
And then—
FLASH.